Colour from the Dark, some observations.
Al Smith
the most satisfying experience for Lovecraft fans.
It was one of those European films that seem to be steeped in potato
peels and cheap wine. All the men had beard stubble and hairy
armpits, all the women had mustaches.
Although the film is set in Italy during World War Two, the Nazis
almost fail to appear -- I say almost because there is a single Nazi
officer for a few seconds in a dream sequence.
There is a Jew hiding from the Nazis, of course, but she is so
inconsequential to the plot that she might as well not be there.
Really, if the character of the Jew were cut from the film, nothing
would be lost. We see her leaving the farm and running through the
trees before being shot by unseen Nazi (or maybe they are Fascist)
pursuers. That's it. That's all she does, apart from appearing later
as a rotting corpse.
The film is very small. It consists of a farmhouse and a family
circle of three, with a few brief appearances of a neighbor and the
local priest. All the action takes place in or around the farmhouse.
Total number of characters, nine (if I counted correctly) and no
extras for crowd scenes ... because there are no crowds, or
gatherings of any number, not even a small number.
OK, on to the colour from space -- or from "darkness" -- it is just
there in the well. No sign or explanation of where it came from, no
meteorite, no team of scientists from the university to investigate
it. Just some dancing luminous reflections -- that's it.
The entire film takes place over the course of a single week. It
seems to me that the action in Lovecraft's story covered several
months, but in the film it is a week. The day after the color is
first seen in the well, the tomatoes have become gigantic on the
vine. The family of a farmer, his wife, and his absent brother's
wife, or maybe it's the farmer's daughter, I couldn't tell (who has
some sort of mental disability that makes her childlike and prevents
her from speaking) drink the water and eat the tomatoes. Overnight,
his lame leg is cured and the mute woman begins to speak. Happiness
reigns.
Then, horror of horrors, the farmer's wife becomes sexually
insatiable. She goes nuts, starts cutting herself and has to be
locked up. The other woman in the house has terrible nightmares in
which the strange mist talks to her in words only she can
distinguish, but oddly enough neither she nor the farmer become
sexual fiends.
The priest is called in to banish the demon from the wife. It is a
demon that is possessing her -- it causes her to spit on the cross
and mock the priest. A crucifix placed on the lip of the well melts.
Lovecraft would have been angry as hell about this aspect of the
film. In his story "The Colour Out of Space" he deliberately omits
any mention of religion or the supernatural -- it is a science
fiction story. But in the film, the color in the well is demonic and
it hates Christianity, and religion in general. At odd moments, but
not all the time, it gives the crazy wife supernatural strength, as
when she snaps the priest's neck like a chicken bone.
The absent brother comes home to discover the crops rotting in the
fields and the terrible state of decay of the inhabitants of the
house. The farmer, who by this time is as mad as his wife, murders
him with a pitchfork.
No departure of the color in the well, just as there was no arrival
of the color. No suggestion or hint of an explanation for its
presence or its nature. No explanation as to what it is doing, or
why or how it is doing it. No mention that it is spreading through
the ground.
This film annoyed me on so many levels. Why do film makers persist
in leaving out details that Lovecraft described -- such as the
location of his film, in New England -- and inserting their own
details -- such as the Nazis of World War Two? I mean, what is the
point? Did the idiots who made this film think that a few random
mentions of Nazis, without ever actually integrating the Nazis into
the plot or even showing them (other than a single officer for about
ten seconds) ... did they think this would *improve* Lovecraft's
story? Are they really that stupid?
"Oh, I know! We'll make it better! We'll move it from Dunwich to
Italy, and we'll set it during World War Two. But we won't actually
say anything or show anything about the War, or integrate the events
of the War into the plot in any significant way. And while we're at
it, let's not say anything about where the color came from, or what
it might be -- we'll just show a few flickering lights now and then.
But we'll make it into an anti-Catholic demon that hates crucifixes!
That will be good."
The characters were flat and uninteresting. I'd even go do far as to
call them repellent, and that was before they became infected by the
colour in the well.
I've seen several other versions of this story, and to be honest,
the others are all better than this one. This film fails to show the
creeping horror as the farm slowly decays. It fails to convey the
trapped desperation of the farmer as he realizes that he cannot save
his farm, his family or himself. it fails to indicate that the
horror is still there, slowly spreading and poisoning the
countryside in an ever-widening circle.
If the film has any strengths, it is that it does sustain a creepy
atmosphere. Creepy, not horrifying or terrifying, or even very
interesting. Just morbid and depressing and dark. I'm afraid I have
to give this turkey only a single bloated, poisonous tomato. It
sucks well water.
-Al-
King Rat
would say that the director decided to change the setting to WWII under the
reign of the Nazis so that it took place in a "godless" time and place, and
still be relatable to the audience. With a budget of only 100k, probably
not going to have a "Schindler's List" level portrayal of atrocities, but
just enough to get the point across. Ulitmately though, I agree that we
didn't need the nazi and the escaped jew subplot.
Plus, this was an Italian production, so it is easier to make Italy look
like Italy than it is to make it look like New England.
--
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"Al Smith" <inv...@address.com> wrote in message
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TJ
> After dwelling on this for a few days, if I had to venture a guess, I
> would say that the director decided to change the setting to WWII under the
> reign of the Nazis so that it took place in a "godless" time and place, and
> still be relatable to the audience. With a budget of only 100k, probably
> not going to have a "Schindler's List" level portrayal of atrocities, but
> just enough to get the point across. Ulitmately though, I agree that we
> didn't need the nazi and the escaped jew subplot.
>
> Plus, this was an Italian production, so it is easier to make Italy look
> like Italy than it is to make it look like New England.
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
As I said in my two word review: IT SUCKED. I'd like to find other
versions of this, I know of "Die Monster Die" I think it was called.
One might never know it was based on HPL's tale.
King Rat
I know of is 1987's THE CURSE, starring a young Will Wheaton. It isn't a
good movie, though it has a few moments here and there. Mostly because of
Lucio Fulci directing the second unit stuff. If you are looking for a scene
for scene adaptation of Colour Out Of Space, this isn't it. If you are
looking for a cheesy 80's low budget kill a rainy day movie, it's watchable.
--
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"TJ" <tj...@post.com> wrote in message
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